1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to racks and like devices for use in “racking” or position balls such as billiard balls into a proper formation such as a triangular formation in preparation to initiate a game such as a game of billiards.
2. Description of the Related Art
In playing the game of billiards or pool or the like, it is important to achieve “tight rack” of balls or balls that have been tightly racked, so that when breaking the rack of balls such as with a cue ball, the balls will efficiently transmit energy into surrounding balls and such that a good break is achieved. A good break would for instance be defined as significant separation and movement of the balls upon impact of at least one previously racked ball by a cue ball. A poor break would for instance be defined as little separation and movement of the balls upon impact of at least one previously racked ball by a cue ball. Such a poor break is often due to a loosely or improperly racked set of balls. A loosely or improperly racked set of balls may be due to a combination of factors including dimensional variation among the balls to be racked, inexperience of the user of the rack, and a rack that is not adapted to providing a properly and tightly racked set of balls. The disclosed invention seeks to overcome the noted problems with racking balls.
Many improvements to racks or rack like devices have been devised to improve the racking of balls. For instance, the following list of US patents and applications all disclose inventions related to billiard type racks and are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. Nos. 916,193, 1,052,461, 2,405,677, 2,422,939, 3,253,826, 3,672,671, 3,992,005, 4,005,861, 4,307,881, 4,452,450, 4,476,781, 4,903,965, 5,376,054, 5,556,341, 5,601,495, 5,735,750, 5,916,032, 5,997,404, 6,312,342, 6,595,862, 7,166,033, 20010044343, 20050009614, and 20050159230. However, the inventive concepts disclosed in the preceding list of patents include several deficiencies. Problems with the prior art include for instance complicated racks having moving parts, racks requiring the user to manually actuate a rack mechanism once a rack is placed on a set of balls to tighten the rack of balls, racks having tightening or compression members of inferior, non-resilient, or low elasticity materials, and racks being void of handles for use in removal of the rack from the racked set of balls. Furthermore, a rack that overcomes all of the above cited problems in a single product is heretofore unknown.